Page:Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1918.djvu/60

44 This very very day came down to us after a boon he on

My late being there begged of me, overflowing

Boon in my bestowing,

Came, I say, this day to it—to a First Communion.

Here he knelt then ín regimental red.

Forth Christ from cupboard fetched, how fain I of feet

To his youngster take his treat!

Low-latched in leaf-light housel his too huge godhead.

There! and your sweetest sendings, ah divine,

By it, heavens, befall him! as a heart Christ's darling, dauntless;

Tongue true, vaunt- and tauntless;

Breathing bloom of a chastity in mansex fine.

Frowning and forefending angel-warder

Squander the hell-rook ranks sally to molest him;

March, kind comrade, abreast him;

Dress his days to a dexterous and starlight order.

How it dóes my heart good, visiting at that bleak hill,

When limber liquid youth, that to all I teach

Yields tender as a pushed peach,

Hies headstrong to its wellbeing of a self-wise self-will!

Then though I should tread tufts of consolation

Dáys áfter, só I in a sort deserve to

And do serve God to serve to

Just such slips of soldiery Christ's royal ration.